Herded into a shuttered Wall-Mart in Browsville, Texas on the Mexican border, 1.995 children were separated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] under White House’s get-tough border enforcement policy. Creating more problems than it’s worth, the Trump White House finds itself in quicksand, pointing fingers at Democrats refusing to compromise on a new immigration bill. Whatever the reasons, the 1,995 illegal immigrant children must be immediately reunited with their families, regardless of current U.S. border laws. From April 9 to May 31, ICE intercepted 1,940 illegal aliens crossing the U.S. border. While no one doubts the border needs to be shored up, separating children from their parents makes no sense, certainly not for the U.S. government forced now in the day-care business at great expense to U.S. taxpayers. White House officials must pivot before it’s too late.
Heading into November’s Midterm elections, the GOP looks to retain both Houses of Congress. Handing Democrats a new political bludgeon, 72-year-old President Donald Trump needs to stop pointing fingers at Democrats and do something quickly to fix the problem. ICE must find the parents currently in dentention, reconnect them with their children and send them back to Mexico. Running child day care centers is not the business of the U.S. government, except for natural disasters. Enforcing existing border laws has caused the current disaster, needing an immediate fix. Taking nursing babies away from their mothers isn’t the kind of publicity needed by the GOP heading into November. “I hate the children being taken away,” Trump told reporters at an impromptu White House press conference. “The Democrats have to change their law –that’s their law.”
Dealing with a PR crisis, it doesn’t matter who’s to blame, who’s right or wrong. What matters is that however many children were separated from their parents, they need to be immediately reunited and sent back across the border. No matter how messy the border problem or bad U.S. immigration laws, no child should be separated from their parents, even as ICE enforces current U.S. immigration laws. Maintaining “Casa Padre” at the shuttered Wall-Mart gives the U.S. a big black eye in national and world opinion. Trump’s savvy enough to figure that out, despite letting ICE go overboard with PR damage to the GOP.. Atty. Gen. Jeff Session’s implemented a “zero tolerance” immigration policy creating the current mess. Trump must pow-wow with Sessions and ICE officials to fix the problem. There’s no fix other that reuniting detained children with their families.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) expressed reservations about the ICE family separation border policy. “Quit separating families. It’s that simple,” said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former 2016 GOP presidential candidate. While the ICE policy worsened this month separating more families, it went on in 2017, with an estimated 700 children separated from families. Building air-conditioned tent cities in Texas near the Mexican border doesn’t deal with ICE’s failed policy. Some recent border detainees were told they were only temporarily separated from their children. “They were forced to leave their children in this room, and then when they came back, the children were gone, and not a single one of them was able to say goodbye,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). Whether it happened that way is anyone’s guess. Democrats have already used the child “separation” issue to galvanize their base.
Congress can’t act quickly enough to enact legislation to reverse the damage already done to the Trump White House and GOP. Immediate steps must be taken with ICE to reunite children with their families and end the practice of separating children from their illegal immigrant parents. Congress needs to work on legislation but not at the expense of those children living in government detention centers away from their parents. Jayapal insists one detainee was told she “should let all their friends back home know that this is what would happen if they tried to come into the United States illegally.” Instead of working on fix, Jayapal prefers to use the victims of a misguided ICE policy as political fodder. Democrats should press ICE and Attorney General to reverse the policy and reunite all separated families. Dealing with the leaky Mexican border won’t be solved overnight.
Trump officials need to urgently address the current immigration crisis on the Mexican border. Separating families puts the government into the day-care business, something that makes zero sense. If Trump says he doesn’t like separating children from families, then he can stop it with a quick executive order. Letting Democrats capitalize on the issue heading into the Midterm elections makes no sense. Trump needs to hold Sessions accountable for creating a PR mess for the White House. It’s not enough talking about enforcing U.S. border laws. Realizing ICE has embarrassed the White House—and U.S. government—should be reason enough to halt the practice immediately. Since there’s no quick fix, ICE must be content to go back to its old practice of letting illegal aliens either cross the border with their families or sending them back to Mexico with families together.
